from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

n. A broad flat blade or strip of metal or wood, with unsharpened edges and a commonly rounded outer end (which may be spoon-shaped), and a handle: used for spreading, smoothing, scraping up, or stirring substances, comminuting powders, etc.

n. A genus of Anatinæ, having the bill much longer than the head or tarsus, twice as wide at the end as at the base, there broadly rounded and spoon-shaped, with narrow prominent nail and numerous protrusive lamellæ; the shoveler-ducks or souchets.

I proceed by deduction (the nonstick spatula is not in the box marked "verres" or "fragile") and go digging through the other cartons only to give up and use a metal spoon on my favorite nonstick pan.) "Everybody to the table!"

We use practice knives so as not to fill up the local hospital's ER, and several of us utilize a chef-grade silicone spatula, which is much kinder to the player on the receiving end than a standard hard-plastic traning knife.